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[Decoration]
MEDIÆVAL MILITARY ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND.
by
GEO. T. CLARK.
Vol. II.
With Illustrations.
... Time
Has moulder’d into beauty many a tower,
Which, when it frown’d with all its battlements,
Was only terrible....—MASON.
London:
Wyman & Sons, 74–76, Great Queen Street,
Lincoln’S-Inn Fields, W.C.
1884.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
DOLFORWYN CASTLE, MONTGOMERY _Page_ 3
DOVER CASTLE, KENT 4
DUNSTER CASTLE, SOMERSET 24
DURHAM KEEP 32
EATON-SOCON CASTLE, BEDFORDSHIRE 36
EWIAS HAROLD CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE 39
EXETER CASTLE 44
FILLONGLEY CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE 47
FONMON CASTLE, GLAMORGAN 49
FOTHERINGAY CASTLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 50
GROSMONT CASTLE, MONMOUTHSHIRE 51
GUILDFORD CASTLE, SURREY 53
HARLECH CASTLE, MERIONETH 72
HASTINGS CASTLE, SUSSEX 82
HAWARDEN CASTLE, FLINTSHIRE 88
HELMSLEY CASTLE, YORKSHIRE 100
HEREFORD CASTLE 108
HERTFORD CASTLE 119
HOPTON CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE 123
HUNTINGDON CASTLE 126
HUNTINGTON CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE 129
KENILWORTH CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE 130
KIDWELLY CASTLE, CAERMARTHENSHIRE 153
KILPECK CASTLE 162
KNARESBOROUGH CASTLE, YORKSHIRE 168
LEEDS, OR LEDES, CASTLE, KENT 176
LEICESTER CASTLE 182
LEYBOURNE CASTLE, KENT 188
LINCOLN CASTLE 189
LLANQUIAN TOWER, GLAMORGAN 201
LONDON, TOWER OF 203
LUDLOW CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE 273
ST. LEONARD’S TOWER, WEST MALLING 291
MIDDLEHAM CASTLE KEEP, YORKSHIRE 293
MITFORD CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND 300
MONTGOMERY CASTLE 303
MORLAIS CASTLE, GLAMORGAN 312
NORHAM CASTLE, DURHAM 322
NOTTINGHAM CASTLE 336
ODIHAM CASTLE, HANTS 336
OSWESTRY, SHROPSHIRE 346
PENMARK CASTLE 351
PENRICE CASTLE, IN GOWER 353
PENRITH CASTLE, CUMBERLAND 357
PEVENSEY CASTLE, SUSSEX 359
PICKERING CASTLE, YORKSHIRE 368
PONTEFRACT CASTLE, YORKSHIRE 375
PORCHESTER CASTLE, HANTS 388
RICHARD’S CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE 401
ROCHESTER CASTLE 405
ROCKINGHAM CASTLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 423
OLD SARUM, WILTSHIRE 447
SCARBOROUGH CASTLE 458
SKENFRITH CASTLE 467
SOUTHAMPTON, THE ANCIENT DEFENCES OF 472
TAMWORTH CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE 481
TAUNTON CASTLE 488
THURNHAM CASTLE, KENT 492
TICKHILL CASTLE, YORKSHIRE 494
TRETOWER, BLAEN-LLYFNI, AND CRICKHOWEL CASTLES 499
TUTBURY CASTLE, STAFFORDSHIRE 505
URQUHART CASTLE, INVERNESS-SHIRE 509
WAREHAM, DORSETSHIRE 513
WHITE CASTLE, MONMOUTHSHIRE 517
WHITTINGTON, SHROPSHIRE 521
WIGMORE, HEREFORDSHIRE 526
YORK, THE DEFENCES OF 534
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. II.
DOLFORWYN CASTLE, Plan and Sections _face p._ 3
DOVER CASTLE, View „ 16
DOVER KEEP, Plans of First Floor and Basement „ 17
Ditto Plans of Second Floor and Second Floor Gallery „ 19
DUNSTER CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 25
EATON-SOCON CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 36
FILLONGLEY CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 48
FONMON CASTLE, Ground Plan and Elevation „ 49
GUILDFORD CASTLE „ 69
HARLECH CASTLE, Bird’s-eye View „ 72
Ditto General Plan „ 73
HASTINGS CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 83
HAWARDEN CASTLE, Ground Plan 92
Ditto Spur-work enclosing the Main Entrance 97
HELMSLEY CASTLE, Ground Plan 101
Ditto Plans and Section of Keep 102
HERTFORD CASTLE, Ground Plan 120
HOPTON CASTLE, Ground Plan 124
HUNTINGTON CASTLE, Ground Plan 129
KENILWORTH CASTLE, Plans of Mortimer’s Tower and of First
and Ground Floors of Keep _face p._ 141
Ditto General Plan „ 145
KIDWELLY CASTLE, Bird’s-eye View „ 153
Ditto Ground Plan „ 154
Ditto General Plan „ 155
Ditto Elevation and Section „ 159
Ditto Gateway and Main Entrance „ 160
Ditto Interior of Chapel „ 156
KNARESBOROUGH KEEP, Plan of Dungeon and Elevation of Keep „ 171
Ditto Plans of Main Floor and Basement „ 172
LINCOLN CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 192
LONDON, TOWER OF, Ground Plan in 1866 206
Ditto The Keep, Third Stage 210
Ditto Fireplace in Keep 211
Ditto St. John’s Chapel—South Aisle 212
Ditto The Keep, Upper Stage 213
Ditto Ditto Vertical Section, East and West 214
Ditto Bloody and Wakefield Towers, Plan of Basement 221
Ditto Wakefield Tower, Palace Entrance and Oratory 223
Ditto Bell Tower. Plan of Basement 227
Ditto Ditto First Floor 228
Ditto The Curtain, Ground Plan 230
Ditto Devereux Tower, Plan of Basement 232
Ditto Salt Tower—Plan of Basement 236
Ditto Ditto First Floor 237
Ditto Well Tower—Plan 239
Ditto Cradle Tower, Plan of Basement 239
Ditto Ditto Window 240
Ditto St. Thomas’s Tower, Plan of Basement 241
Ditto Ditto Detail of Ring Stones 242
Ditto Ditto Piscina 243
Ditto Byward Tower and Postern, Plan of 245
Ditto Byward Tower, Plan of First Floor 246
Ditto Middle Tower, Ground Plan 248
Ditto Ditto First Floor 249
LUDLOW CASTLE, Ground Plan _face p._ 274
Ditto The Keep, Ground Floor „ 277
Ditto Ditto First Floor „ 278
MONTGOMERY CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 309
MORLAIS CASTLE, Ground Plan and Sections „ 313
NORHAM CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 324
Ditto Plan of Basement, Keep „ 326
NOTTINGHAM CASTLE, in the Sixteenth Century, Bird’s-eye View „ 336
ODIHAM CASTLE, Ground Plan 337
OLD SARUM, Ground Plan _face p._ 449
PENMARK CASTLE, Ground Plan 352
PENRICE CASTLE, Ground Plan _face p._ 353
PENRITH CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 358
PICKERING CASTLE, Ground Plan and Sections 373
PORCHESTER CASTLE, Plans _face p._ 389
RICHARD’S CASTLE, Ground Plan and Section „ 403
ROCHESTER CASTLE Keep, Plans of Basement and First Floor „ 410
Ditto Plans of Main Floor and Main Floor Gallery „ 412
Ditto Sections of Mouldings 413
ROCKINGHAM CASTLE, Ground Plan _face p._ 426
SCARBOROUGH CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 462
Ditto The Keep „ 464
Ditto Ditto South Face „ 465
Ditto Ditto Interior „ 466
SKENFRITH CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 470
TRETOWER CASTLE, Elevation and Ground Plan „ 500
WAREHAM, Ground Plan and Section „ 513
WHITE CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 517
WHITTINGTON CASTLE, Ground Plan „ 523
MEDIÆVAL MILITARY ARCHITECTURE.
DESCRIPTIONS.
“ . . . . . Time
Has mouldered into beauty many a tower,
Which, when it frowned with all its battlements,
Was only terrible.” . . . . —MASON.
[Illustration: DOLFORWYN CASTLE.]
DOLFORWYN CASTLE, MONTGOMERY.
Dolforwyn, or “The Maiden’s Meadow,” is a name evidently transposed
from the meads of the adjacent Severn to the ridge occupied by the
castle, which rises 500 feet or 600 feet above, and half a mile west
of, the river, from which it is separated by an intervening hill. The
approach is by a steep road, which becomes still more so near the top
of the ridge, and finally skirts along, and is commanded by, the works
of the castle.
These works are very simple in plan, and of rude construction. A
platform about 200 yards long by 100 yards broad occupies the centre
of the ridge. Its rocky sides are scarped and revetted all round to
a height of about 10 feet, and upon this wall was built a curtain of
from 20 to 30 feet more, and about 5 feet thick. At each end a cross
ditch was quarried in the rock, so as to isolate the castle from the
equally high ground beyond. Probably there were no bridges across these
ditches, and the entrance seems to have been by a plain doorway in the
curtain upon the northern face of the works. The curtain appears to
have been quite plain, without either buttress or pilaster or flanking
tower, save at the eastern end of the area, near the centre, where are
the remains of a circular tower about 30 feet in diameter with walls 5
feet thick. The curtain to the south, or most exposed, side is broken
away; on the opposite side it is more perfect, and contains a doorway,
broken, and now a mere hole in the wall. Within is a fragment of a
building into which probably the gateway opened. The platform is very
irregular, partly natural, chiefly from the heap of rubbish covering up
the foundations of the domestic buildings. The building is not unlike
Dinas Brân and Dinas Powis, and is probably of the age of Henry III. or
Edward I., early in the reign. The material is the tile-stone of the
country laid in courses. There is no sign of ashlar.
Dolforwyn has no history. All that is known is that it was granted by
Edward I. [7 Edward I.] to Roger Mortimer of Wigmore as “the Castle of
Dolvoron,” with the territories of Keddewy and Kery, to be held by the
service of three knight’s-fees. In 14 Edward I. the castle was still
held by a Mortimer, for Richard Labaunk was in prison at Wigmore, by
reason of arrears in his account to Edmund de Mortimer whilst constable
of his castle of Dolfnovan. He was liberated on bail. In 18 Edward I.,
Bogo de Knovill, being constable of Montgomery Castle, had a pardon
for £90 due on his farm of lands of Kery and Kidgewenny. This, however,
was from the king, who seems to have resumed possession. Dugdale says
the castle was built by David ap Llewelyn, who flourished 1240–46, but
the Welsh attribute it to Bleddyn ap Cynfin between 1065 and 1073.
Bleddyn may have had some kind of stronghold here, as a place very
convenient for a raid upon the flat country, then held by the English;
but he certainly did not build the existing walls. These are not
unlikely to have been the work of Roger Mortimer, and their destruction
probably followed at the first convenient opportunity. The name of
the castle has not been found in the Mortimer inquisitions, nor is it
mentioned save as above, among their possessions, or those of any other
landowner. After the settlement of Wales it would cease to possess any
value.
DOVER CASTLE, KENT.
“Est ibi mons altus, strictum mare, litus opacum,
Hinc hostes citius Anglica regna petunt,
Sed castrum Doveræ, pendens a vertice montis,
Hostes rejiciens, litora tuta facit.”
—DE BELLO HASTINGENSI CARMEN, i. 603.
The tract of chalk which forms and gives character to the isle of
Thanet and the south-eastern portion of the county of Kent, rises
towards the sea to a line of cliffs upon which the promontories of the
North and South Foreland and of Dover are the most conspicuous. The
cliff line, however, is not continuous. It is broken at intervals by
various valleys and gorges, down which the waters from the interior
find their way to the sea, producing havens which in former days and
for vessels of light burthen were much in request. Of these waters
the chief is the Stour, which at no very remote period, near to the
present Canterbury, fell into the head of a considerable estuary, the
waters of which, guarded by the ancient fortresses Regulbium, Rutupiæ
and Lemanis, maintained Thanet as an island, and gave to the trade of
the period free access to the interior of the district. This estuary
was not exempt from the general tendency to become silted up. Before
the Norman Conquest the waters had receded from Canterbury to the
parish thence named Stourmouth, and Thanet from an island had become
a peninsula. The process of silting up has been since continued, and
the mouth of the Stour carried many miles lower. The river, after a
very winding course, falls into and in part forms what remains of the
ancient English port of Sandwich, opposite to the anchorage known as
the Small Downs.
About three miles to the west of the South Foreland, another and much
smaller stream, fed from the lower chalk and greensand, flows down a
deep valley, and, reaching the sea between two considerable heights,
has given origin to the port, town, and castle of Dover, so called,
without doubt, by derivation from a British name represented in the
Roman times by Dubris. The town and port lie deep in the valley. Of
the heights, a part of that to the west has been rendered famous by
Shakespeare, and has long borne his name. That to the east is known as
the Castle Hill, so called from the fortress by which, under some form
or other, it has been crowned from a very remote period. A position
so convenient and so capable of defence would, upon any shore, have
attracted the notice of the very earliest inhabitants; for not only
was the height strong and the port convenient, but these advantages
were found at the point at which the island approached nearest to the
Continent, and at which those who crossed the straits, whether as
friends or foes, would first make the land, and, if not obstructed,
would come ashore. The position, therefore, was of far more than local
importance, and would be sure to receive the attention not only of
the chiefs of the Cantii, but of the rulers, if such there were, of
the whole of Britain. It is therefore probable that haven, town, and
fortress date from very nearly the first settlement of the country.
Although the Western or Shakespeare’s Cliff is part of a larger range,
the Castle Hill is better suited for defence. It is, in fact, an
isolated knoll about 1,000 yards north and south, and 500 yards east
and west, the summit being a steep and narrow ridge. Towards the south
its boundary is the sea cliff, 320 feet high, and to the west the deep
valley of the town. To the east and north are other valleys, less deep
but by no means inconsiderable, and the sides of which are steep.
Moreover, the whole hill is of chalk, that is to say, of a material
easily scarped and capable of retaining any general outline to which it
may be cut.
But though, on general grounds, a very remote antiquity may safely
be attributed to both town and fortress, it is difficult to find any
precise or special evidence on which to rest the claim. Here, as at
Durovernum or Canterbury, the Roman form indicates a British origin,
and, if the ancient name of the stream be indeed, as asserted, the
Dour, may well be derived from it, and the Castle Hill is just the
place upon which a British camp is likely to be found. The commerce
of the Britons, known to have been carried on with activity through
the Cornish ports and the Isle of Wight, has also been claimed for the
route through Dover. The actual present traces of British occupation
in this southern country are indeed very scanty, and confined to a few
names of rivers and hills, a very few of towns or villages, and to
occasional entrenchments upon high ground, and of an irregular outline.
The great roads, whatever their remote origin, in their present form
carry the stamp of Rome upon every mile of their course, and the
oldest known works in masonry are due to the same people, while the
general topography, all that relates to property and self-government,
hundreds, lathes, rapes and tythings, parish and hamlet, grange and
farm, and the crowd of bourns, dens, hams, hangers, hirsts, ings, tons,
wolds and worths point with overwhelming force to the English settlers.
Even the tenure in gavelkind, claimed as a British custom, and known in
Wales by the expressive name of “Randyr” or “partible” land, is by most
legal antiquaries regarded as Teutonic.
Although Cæsar does not mention Dover by name, there can be no doubt
that his fleet lay before it in August, B.C. 55, the period of his
first invasion of Britain. Dr. Guest has clearly demonstrated that
the Portus Icius whence he sailed was a small and now silted-up haven
between Cape Gris Nez, the Ician promontory, and Wissant, whence a ten
hours’ course brought him in the morning abreast of Dover. Here he
found the natives, in great numbers and armed, drawn up to oppose his
landing. He therefore anchored in Dover Wick, the roadstead east of the
town, to give time for his slower ships to arrive, and thence proceeded
to Deal, where he probably landed with two legions, or from eight
to ten thousand men. Dr. Guest has pointed out that the word Icius
coincides closely with the Irish name for the English Channel, “Muir
n’Icht,” “the Ician Sea,” “icht” being a form of “uch” or “ucha,” upper
in height, which plays so important a part in the names of places in
Wales and the north of Scotland. It was natural that the Channel should
be named from its most remarkable feature, and to this day its name in
Dutch is “De Hofden,” or “the heights.”
Cæsar stayed but three weeks in the country, and may not have visited
Dover; but as, when he returned in the following year with a much
larger force, he seems to have embarked and landed at the same points,
he must have been familiar with the aspect of the port from the sea. As
on this occasion he traversed Kent and crossed the Thames, he probably
left no dangerous force behind him at Dover, which he does not mention,
and which clearly was not then made a rallying point by the Britons.
Had the heights been held in force, he would probably in the first
instance have reduced them, or at any rate have mentioned the fact in
his narrative. During the century that followed Cæsar’s appearance,
Rome took no active part in British affairs, but it is probable that a
considerable trade sprang up between the island and the Continent, and
the Britons made great advances in commerce and civilisation. Towns
were founded and coins struck. The next military invasion took place,
A.D. 43, ninety-eight years after the first appearance of Cæsar, and
under the reign of Claudian, and command of Aulus Plautius, who landed
with four legions. The Cantii then held a tract nearly corresponding
to the present county of Kent. Durovernum had been founded amidst its
indigenous alders, and Camalodunum, beyond the Thames, was the chief
city of the Trinobantes. Where Plautius landed is not precisely known.
Probably at several points on the open beach between Rich borough and
Laymen. Whether the Britons mustered north or south of the Thames is
also unknown; but, when Claudian followed his lieutenant, the way lay
open to that river, and he marched at once upon Camalodunum, where the
Trinobantes were put to flight. Plautius probably subdued the country
as far west as the Axe and the Tamar, and his progress may, it is
thought, be traced by the remains of his rectangular camps opposed to
those of larger area and irregular outline thrown up by the retiring
Britons. As, in the year A.D. 40, Caligula had caused a lighthouse
to be set up on the heights of Boulogne, it is not improbable that
Plautius was the builder of the corresponding tower at Dover.
Ostorius Scapula is said to have occupied with a camp the Castle Hill.
He, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were busied mainly with the
midland and northern parts of the island, and the southern province,
Britannia Prima, seems to have been at peace. Roads were laid out,
towns built, the metals were smelted, and agriculture prospered.
Dubris (Dover), Durobrivis (Rochester), Rutupiæ (Richborough), Lemanis
(Lymne), Regulbium (Reculver), and Anderida (Pevensey), came afterwards
into notice as towns or havens. The Watling Street, which ran from
Canterbury by Rochester northwards, seems to have been commenced
at Dover. There were indeed roads from Canterbury to Lymne and to
Richborough, but Dover would be the port reached by the production
of the road in a straight line from Canterbury. In the reign of
Valentinian, A.D. 364–7, a cohort of the Second Legion of 1,100 men
was stationed at Dubris, where stamped tiles show them to have built
a bath, and which is mentioned as a port in the Iter of Antoninus
and as a town (civitas) by the geographer of Ravenna. In the time of
Constantine, Dubris was one of the six ports south of Thanet, under the
Count of the Saxon shore, the others being Rutupiæ, Regulbium, Lemanis,
Anderida, and Adurnus (Portsmouth). It is, however, not included in the
list of the twenty-eight towns existing when the Romans retired from
Britain, of which Rutupiæ was one. Still, even if Dubris were one only
of three heads of the Watling Street, its importance under the Roman
sway was considerable.
To the Roman period is to be referred the burial-ground laid open near
the edge of the cliff in 1797, and the bath discovered on the brook
west of St. Mary’s Church. No mention is made of a Roman fortress,
nor was it in accordance with the practice of that people to place
a permanent camp, still less a military station, upon a height so
inaccessible as the Castle Hill. The existing earthworks show no traces
of Roman outline, nor, when they had possession of the whole district,
was there any need to fortify the lighthouse. The lighthouse alone, of
the works upon the hill, can with certainty be pronounced to be Roman,
but this, of course, implies the existence and employment of the port.
All that the topographer can affirm is that the earthworks do not now
present, and, so far as description may be relied on, do not appear
ever to have presented, anything of a Roman character.
Kent was probably the part of Britain first invaded by the Northmen,
and certainly the first actually subdued and settled. It was the only
independent state established and maintained by the followers of
Hengist, the Jutes, a people who did not contribute largely to the
conquest of Britain, neither did they occupy any considerable portion
of the conquered country; but what they did retain became and still
remains intensely Teutonic, and their early supremacy, during the
conversion of the English to Christianity, is marked by the fact that
their chief city became, as it has since remained, the ecclesiastical
metropolis of the island. Dover was a considerable Jutish port, and
before long was regarded as the key of England. Very probably the
inner earthworks still to be seen, though too much altered to be
recognisable, were the work of this people, and the collegiate church
of St. Martin, founded in the town by Wihtræd, King of Kent (690–725),
is said to have been removed by him from the Castle Hill. In the time
of Alfred, Dover was placed in the bailiwick of Stouting, and the
lathe of St. Augustine. Its history, however, properly so called, does
not begin till the reign of the Confessor, whose charter to the Cinque
Ports, which John is said to have inspected, was confirmed by many
later kings.
In September, 1051, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, brother-in-law to
King Edward, paid a visit to the English Court at Gloucester, and
returning through Canterbury there rested his escort, and thence went
to Dover on his way homeward. Before entering the town, he and his men
put on their coats of mail, and attempted to take free quarters in
the houses of the burghers. This led to a fight in which much blood
was shed, and the Count finally, being expelled the town, returned
to Gloucester with his complaint. The subsequent tale has often been
told. Godwin, then Earl of Kent, took part with his injured countrymen,
and withstood the strong Norman interest about the king, and was, in
consequence, banished. Godwin proposed, says Malmesbury, “Ut magnates
illius castelli blande in curia regis de seditione convenirentur.”
Whether “castellum” can be taken for more than the fortified town is
uncertain. It is not probable that Eustace would have ascended to the
castle, since he sought quarters in the town. On the whole this passage
can scarcely be taken to prove the existence at that time of a regular
castle on the hill. Nevertheless, the existence of such a castle at
that time is exceedingly probable, for in 1064–65 Harold, says William
of Poitiers, swore to Duke William that, on the death of the Confessor,
“se ... traditurum interim ipsius militum custodiæ castrum Doveram,
studio atque sumptu suo communitum, item per diversa loca illius terræ
alia castra.” Eadmer is more precise. In his account Duke William
insists, “et insuper castellum Dofris cum puteo aquæ ad opus meum te
facturum.” Malmesbury says, “Castellum Doroberniæ (Dubris) quod ad jus
suum pertineret.” Here there can be no mistake as to what is meant. A
well in the town could be of no special value, but a well on a chalk
hill 290 feet above the water springs was an addition to the castle
worthy of special notice. Such a well, moreover, was a very laborious
work, and must have taken some time to complete. Harold’s oath is
no doubt involved in a good deal of doubt and uncertainty, but the
tale may at least be taken to show that there was, before the Norman
conquest, a castle upon the hill, now crowned by the Norman keep, and
that it had been strengthened by Harold. Malmesbury here, as in his
account of the fray with Count Eustace, for Dover puts Canterbury,
evidently in error.
Domesday Book opens with Dover. “Dovere tempore regis Edwardi,” &c.
That king held two parts of half its rents, and Earl Godwin the other
third, that is, the earl’s penny. The burgesses provided the king with
twenty ships annually for fifteen days, in each twenty-one men. The
king’s messengers also had certain valuable privileges, showing that
the port lay in the usual route to the Continent. There was a mill at
the entry to the port, much in the way of the shipping. The castle
is not mentioned, but we read of the Gildhalla, or Guildhall, of the
burgesses. The town, though thriving, had recently been burned, and the
rent reduced in consequence.
The Normans landed, as their Teutonic ancestors had landed centuries
before them, beneath the ancient walls of the Roman Anderida, which,
under the name of Pevensey, had become an English, and was to become
ere long a Norman fortress. Pevensey is a haven no longer, but within
its circuit may still be seen huge fragments of Roman and Norman
masonry, and the simpler, but, at least, equally durable mound of
its English occupants, a grand and striking composition, and, to the
instructed observer, eloquent of great events. William took possession
of the ruins, and, on the following day, marched upon the battlefield,
hastily fortifying with wood and earth the hill of Hastings in support
of his position. After the battle Romney first felt the weight of the
Conqueror’s hand, and he then turned to Dover. The castle was, says
William of Poitiers, impregnable, and the town even then considerable;
but the people, though assembled in vast numbers, had no leaders, and
town and castle were at once surrendered, though in the transfer,
either by design or accident, much of the town was burned. William
paused here eight days, detained by sickness among his troops. He
treated the people with great lenity, placed a Norman garrison in the
castle, to the defences of which he added, and then proceeded towards
the Thames, receiving the submission of Canterbury and Rochester on his
way. Kent was placed under the command of Bishop Odo, who held Dover as
its military centre. This continued to be its position, and in 1074,
when the fierce Jutish blood broke out, and the men of Kent, headed
by Eustace of Boulogne, rose against William, their first object was
to gain Dover Castle, to which they laid siege. Its defences, whether
English or Norman, were strong, but the attack was sharp. Bishop Odo
and Hugh de Montfort, who had the castle in charge, were absent, but
they exerted themselves in the county, and the castle was relieved.
Towards the end of the reign the town is said to have been walled,
and to have had ten gates. Its position, as the most important of
the Cinque Ports, seems to have been established, to which its castle
largely contributed. The five ports were Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover
and Sandwich. Winchelsea and Rye were among the members. Their service
was to provide fifty-seven ships annually, of which number Dover
furnished twenty-one.
Important as the castle continued to be under the reigns of the
Plantagenet and Tudor kings, its history does not possess any very
particular interest. It was not the scene of any very remarkable event,
and, though accounted the key of the kingdom, was not in any very
intimate manner bound up with its history. It has always been held by
the Crown and governed by a constable, usually a man of eminence, of
which officials Lyon gives a list of 138. Three barons of the house
of Fiennes held the office under the Conqueror, Rufus, and Henry
I., and in their time seem to have been built the outer curtain and
many of its towers. Walchelin Magminot, placed in office by Stephen,
held the place against him in 1137, and in 1138 surrendered it to
the queen, just before the battle of the Standard. Stephen died at
Dover, probably in the castle, and Mr. Puckle has fought gallantly for
the recent discovery of his remains. Henry II. is supposed to have
built the keep and the wall of the inner ward in 1154, soon after his
accession to the crown, and, if so, it was probably the actual work of
one of the Barons Fiennes, who held the office of constable in that
reign. Of these lords, the last, James Fiennes, was constable at the
accession of Richard I., and in 1191 received, as a prisoner in the
castle, Geoffrey, Henry II.’s natural son, on his way to take up the
archbishopric of York. He was taken from the sanctuary of St. Martin’s
church, and imprisoned by order of the Bishop of Ely, the chancellor.
For this outrage Fiennes was suspended, and eventually the chancellor
was excommunicated and banished. In 1198 the constable was one of the
five officers appointed to inspect the treasures of the church of
Canterbury. In the reign of John, the constable was Hubert de Burgh,
to whom it fell to defend the castle against Prince Louis and the
French invaders. Louis made great attempts to win over De Burgh to his
party, but without success, and upon his final refusal he laid siege
to the castle. _Trebuchets_ and _petraria_, and much siege artillery
were brought over from France, and a covered way was run along the
slope outside the castle ditch on the north-west quarter. Wooden towers
(_Malvoisins_) also were erected on the edge of the ditch to quell
the fire from the walls, which were actually shaken by strokes of the
ram. Also a small colony was established in temporary huts, so as to
give the siege the aspect of a blockade. Hubert, however, was a true
and loyal subject of England. He regarded his charge as held under
his sovereign, whoever that sovereign might be, and his castle as the
“clavis Angliæ et repagulum.” He returned attack for attack, stone
for stone, until the death of John, by removing much of the cause of
dissatisfaction, led to the retirement of the French from the country.
The great spur-work in advance of the northern gateway, and which
still, though much altered, remains, is probably the work of De Burgh,
no doubt suggested to him by the direction of the French attack. Henry
III. was here in state in 1255, on his way from Spain, and in 1259
the castle was in the hands of the barons, who refused to allow his
brother Richard, King of the Romans, to enter the place until he had
sworn to adopt their cause. Henry recovered the castle in 1261 from
Hugh le Bigot, but was unable to hold it, and was refused admission
when, with his brother and the Earl Mareschal, he presented himself
before the gate in 1263. In the great struggle, Henry held the Tower of
London, and the barons the castle of Dover. After Lewes, the Princes
Edward and Henry were for a time held in durance in Dover. In 1265,
when the prince had the upper hand, and Kenilworth had fallen, fourteen
nobles of the royal party were imprisoned in the keep of Dover. Here
they defended themselves, turning the tables upon their captors, who,
attacked from without by Prince Edward, and thus placed between two
fires, surrendered the castle. The Countess of Leicester, who was
within it, was allowed to retire to France.
On his return from Palestine, after his father’s death, in the summer
of 1274, Edward I. landed at Dover. He again visited the castle in
1278, 1296, and 1299. Dover was his usual port when he visited or
returned from the Continent, and in his time the castle was maintained
and strengthened, and some of its most considerable parts, such as the
Constable’s Gate and St. John’s Postern, are of the conclusion of the
reign of Henry or early in that of Edward, and most probably the latter.
Edward II. was here in the January following his father’s death, and
here he embarked for Boulogne on the occasion of his marriage in 1308,
and here he received the queen. Edward III. was not infrequently at
Dover, but is more likely to have lodged in the Maison Dieu than in the
castle. He probably drew troops from hence when he sailed from the port
on his celebrated secret expedition to Calais in 1348. In the reign of
Henry V. the Emperor Sigismond was received at the castle as a visitor,
and from hence the king embarked his army for France in 1421, as did
Henry VII. in 1491.
Henry VIII. suppressed the Maison Dieu, the celebrated foundation of
Hubert de Burgh, within which very many kings and princes had been
entertained, but the castle was an object of his special care, and was
repaired and garrisoned. Henry also built the blockhouses of Sandown,
Deal, Walmer, and Sandgate, and placed them under the charge of the
Constable of Dover. Three bulwarks also were constructed under the
cliff and upon the pier of the harbour. Later on the castle fell into
neglect, and in the reign of Charles I., being garrisoned by a small
force, and but little cared for, it was taken by surprise and held for
the Parliament. In 1648 the Kentish royalists made a vigorous effort to
recover it, but were repulsed by Algernon Sydney, then its governor.
DESCRIPTION.
Dover Castle is called by Matthew Paris “the very front door of
England,” and described by William of Poitou as “Situm est id castellum
in rupe mari contigua quæ naturaliter acuta undique ad hoc ferramentis
elaborate incisa, in speciem muri directissima altitudine, quantum
sagittæ jactus permetiri potest consurgit, quo in latere unda marina
alluitur.” It presents a good combination of the defences of several
architectural periods, the general result being a concentric fortress,
the growth of many centuries, and which, a century ago, presented
much both of earthwork and masonry of great and unmixed antiquarian
interest. More recently, however, the works have been delivered over
to the military authorities of the country, and the result has been
a series of alterations, additions, and removals, necessary, it is
in all courtesy to be presumed, for the defence of the country, but
very destructive of the ancient features of the fortress. The ancient
earthworks have been scarped, extended, retrenched, and tunnelled,
barracks and magazines have been built, the keep has been converted
into storerooms and water-tanks, and in its basement are two powder
magazines. In its present condition, and having regard to the strict
regulations, prohibiting even the use of the pencil, under which the
whole is placed, an accurate examination of what remains of the ancient
works, whether in earth or masonry, is almost impracticable.
The British camp was oblong, following the figure of the hill. It was
composed of a deep and broad ditch, the contents of which were in part
thrown inwards and upwards so as to form a bank. The area thus enclosed
measured within the bank about 875 yards by 350 yards, the latter being
its diameter at the cliff, by which it is cut off, the northern end
running to a point. This main ditch has probably been deepened and more
or less altered during the Norman period, and it is now connected with
various bastions, hornworks, and caponnières, but its general outline
is sufficiently clear, and it may, from internal evidence, be presumed
to be British. Within the area, rather nearer to its northern end, a
second earthwork, also composed of bank and ditch, has been thrown up.
This includes the lighthouse tower, and is therefore called the Roman
ditch, but there is nothing about it of a Roman character, and it is
far more probable that it was the work of the English, and formed the
inner defence of the castle which Harold undertook to surrender. The
space between this and the great earthwork forms the outer ward of the
Norman castle; the inner work has been divided into two parts. That
to the south, containing the lighthouse, forms the middle ward; that
to the north contains the keep, and is the inner ward. The lighthouse
has been employed as a belfry to the adjacent church of St. Mary,
which is the subject of an excellent memoir by Mr. Puckle, though he
can scarcely be admitted to establish its connexion with the British
church. The two are undoubtedly the oldest buildings within the castle
area.
The _Keep_ and _Inner Ward_ are Norman, of the reign of Henry II., but
the curtain and most of its towers have been refaced or rebuilt, a
great part recently, but more or less on the old lines. The plan is an
irregular polygon, about 120 yards each way, with fourteen rectangular
mural towers of no internal projection, and not rising above the
curtain, which, however, is lofty. Two of those to the south-west take
their name from Magminot and one from Gore. The walls were of flint
rubble, quoined with ashlar, and battering outside at the base, the top
of which is marked by a bold cordon of stone. Upon the sides of some
of the towers are bold machicolated openings from garderobes. The keep
stands detached in the centre of the ward, and within the area, built
against the walls, are several buildings, as Arthur’s Hall, the guard
chamber, and the officers’ quarters, some of early English character,
others modern.
There are two entrances, the north, or King’s Gate, and the south, the
Duke of Suffolk’s, or Palace Gate. The gateways are vaulted passages,
with a flat segmental arch, opening externally between two square
flanking towers. There is a groove for a portcullis, and the vaults
have an early English import. Each of these gates is defended by an
additional work. A sort of hornwork is thrown out in advance, enclosed
within a wall with towers, and with a second gate placed obliquely to
the first, to allow the approach to be commanded. The north, called
the King’s Gate, is tolerably perfect. The southern outwork is nearly
destroyed. It had two gates, one to the south, connected with which was
the tower containing a well, and one to the east, called King Arthur’s
Gate, close to which was the Armourer’s Tower, and near this was Earl
Godwin’s Postern. The masonry of this inner ward was probably of the
date of the keep. It was included within a broad and deep ditch, now
incomplete, on the southern front.
The _Middle Ward_ includes the southern half of what was probably the
English earthwork. Its southern two-thirds is rounded, but at its base
are, or were, walls and towers connecting it right and left with the
curtain of the outer ward, which it thus divided into two parts. In
advance of this work were three towers: two, to the east and west,
Clinton and Mortimer, were square. Both seem to have been of Norman
date. The central tower to the south was circular, and was called
Valence. It was, no doubt, later, probably of the reign of Henry III.
The foundations of Clinton Tower were laid open and removed in 1794. A
fragment of Mortimer’s Tower remains. Valence Tower was destroyed in
the last century. The gatehouse of the ward is called Colton Gate. It
is Norman, but an octagonal story has been added to the square base.
The curtain connecting these towers is gone, and the lofty south bank
has been scarped, and its outline changed. In this ward is a well 380
feet deep, once covered by a tower.
The _Outer Ward_ is contained within a curtain, much of which is
reduced by an internal ramp to a parapet wall. Upon the three landward
sides it is narrow, and chiefly occupied by the ditch of the middle
and inner wards. Upon the remaining or southern side it expands and
includes a large space between the middle ward and the cliff. Its
circuit is only not complete because its walls rest at either end
upon the cliff. The plan of the wall is irregular, with an occasional
angle or shoulder for raking the ditch. Exteriorly it rises from
the outer dry ditch, and upon it are twenty-seven towers of various
dates, figures, and dimensions, square, circular, and multiangular.
Most of those on the western face are simply hollow bastions, and
have no internal projection. Those on the eastern face are mostly
mere sentry-boxes, or bartizan turrets of small dimensions. Upon the
seaward front, where the cliff is perpendicular, there is no wall.
The ingenuity of the engineer has been exercised on the landward and
weaker sides. Five of the towers are connected with gates. These
towers, commencing at the south-west angle of the ward, near the cliff,
are: 1. Canon’s or Monk’s Gate, now destroyed; in it was a well. 2.
Rokesley’s Tower, semicircular. 3. Fulbert de Dover’s Tower, square;
near which was long the office of the “bodar,” or sergeant-at-arms, to
whom all civil warrants of arrest for debt or breach of the revenue
laws were addressed. Fulbert’s Tower was also his prison. 4. Hirst’s
Tower, semicircular; it commands a shoulder or re-entering angle in the
wall. 5. Arsick’s Tower, semicircular. 6. Gatton Tower. 7. Peverill’s,
Beauchamp’s, or Marshall’s Tower. This is also the gatehouse between
the two divisions of the outer ward, which was strong, with a ditch on
the south front, and a drawbridge. It was also the marshal’s prison.
8. Port, Gosling, or Queen Mary’s Tower, having been repaired by that
sovereign. 9. Fiennes’s Tower, or the Constable’s Gate. This is one
of the grandest gateways in England. It is in plan a triangle with
its obtuse angle presented to the field. The angles at the base fall
within the line of the curtain, and are capped by two large drum
towers. The salient angle in like manner is capped by an oblong tower,
rounded at each end and flat in the centre, through which the entrance
passes. These three towers are large and lofty, and are connected by
an embattled curtain. Within the triangle a central tower rises to a
still greater height, and commands the whole. The entrance passage is
broad and vaulted, and provided with gates and a portcullis. Within,
it opens upon the level of the outer ward; without, it terminates
abruptly upon the scarp of the ditch, there about 50 feet deep. From
this gateway a bridge communicates with the opposite bank. A single
lofty pier rises from the centre of the ditch, and from it an arch
springs to the outer abutment, carrying a regular roadway and parapets.
In the opposite direction the parapets alone spring, as two arches,
from the pier to the gateway, and serve to steady the pier, but the
roadway is omitted, and its place supplied by a drawbridge. This
arrangement is not uncommon, but is here specially necessary, owing to
the height and consequent weakness of the pier. Upon the counterscarp
of the ditch is a _tête-de-pont_, from which a steep road descends by a
traverse towards the town. This gate, though open, is but little used.
The ordinary gate is modern, and near the site of Canon’s Gate. The
Constable’s Gate is of the Decorated period. Its interior is said to be
very curious, but is not shown.
Sixteen towers, including Clopton, Godsfoe, Magminot (4), and
Crevequer’s Towers (2), protect the north-west face. Clopton is a
hexagon; the name of Magminot is borne by four towers. The two towers
bearing the name of Crevequer mark the position of the great postern,
a very curious work. Passing from the north gate of the inner ward,
a range of arches cross the ditch and the outer ward, and terminate
abruptly in a large low pier with salient angles to the right and
left. Opposite to the pier, and no doubt at one time connected with
it by a drawbridge, rise a pair of circular towers (Crevequer),
connected by a heavy curtain and flanked by lesser towers (Magminot)
at short distances, all forming part of the _enceinte_ of the outer
ward. Towards the field the curtain has a salient angle, and from
its base a covered gallery descends into the outer ditch, and there
reaches St. John’s, a drum tower built in the middle of it. The
gallery passes through the first story of the tower, and terminates
in the counterscarp, in a circular chamber cut in the chalk, and from
this chamber three tunnels radiate to different parts of the glacis,
of which one formerly led to a distant postern, and another still
communicates with the old spur-work, attributed to Hubert de Burgh,
and converted into a modern ravelin. Two other tunnels, apparently of
Edwardian date, leave the main gallery under the castle wall, and the
basement floor of St. John’s contains two sally ports, opening into the
bottom of the ditch. The modern access to these galleries is by a shaft
sunk in the pier of the old drawbridge, but the old entrance was nearer
the curtain. The French siege of 1216 was directed upon this quarter.
The approaches were made from the west below the Constable’s Gate, and
under cover of a trench and breastwork. While the attack was impending
Sir Stephen de Pencester brought a reinforcement into the castle by the
postern under Godwin’s Tower. De Burgh, taught by experience, threw
up the advanced work which still, under a changed form, covers the
northern end of the castle, and it was to reach this in safety that the
gallery from St. John’s Tower was executed.
Fitzwilliam’s Tower (18), placed about 80 yards east of the north
gate, was connected with a second postern, not unlike the last, and
now connected with a caponnière. Beyond this are 19 and 20, two
watch turrets, and farther on 21, Albrinci’s or Avrenches’ Tower.
This contains a third postern of peculiar arrangement. It is a low,
polygonal structure, placed on a shoulder on the ditch, so as to
rake its continuation southward. It was reached by a covered gallery
from the south gate of the inner ward, which is continued through
its basement so as to open on the counterscarp of the main ditch.
Connected with this gallery was Veville or Pencester’s Tower, placed
upon the curtain which on this side closed the connexion between the
two divisions of the outer ward. Of the remaining towers, five in
number, three are called Ashford’s, and near one of them was another
well. This part of the defence has been completely remodelled. The
names of the several towers are those of the knights by whom they
were built, or whose duty it was to defend them, for to no castle
in Britain, not even to Richmond, was the practice of tenure by
castle guard so extensively applied as to Dover, and very numerous
and valuable were the Kentish manors so held, amounting to 230½
knight-fees, of which 115¼ were attached to the office of Constable.
The _Keep_.—This is a very fine example of a late Norman keep. It is
very nearly square, being, at the base above the plinth, 98 feet north
and south by 96 feet east and west, with a forebuilding 15 feet broad
by 115 feet long, which covers the east side and the south-east angle
of the main structure. The angles are capped by pilasters 19 feet broad
and of 5 feet projection, which meet to form a solid angle, and, rising
to the summit, become the outer faces of four square turrets. On each
of the three free faces is an intermediate pilaster, 15 feet broad by
5 feet projection, which rises to the same height with the parapet,
and forms a bay in its line. There is a battering plinth, 6 feet high,
from which the pilasters rise, and the total height of the wall is 83
feet, and of the turrets 12 feet more, or 95 feet. The base of the keep
is 373 feet above high-water mark. The top of the plinth is marked, on
the face of the pilasters, by a bold cordon or roll, and there are two
sets-off of 6 inches common to both walls and pilasters, one at the
first and the other at the second-floor level. The walls are of unusual
thickness, even for a Norman keep. That to the west, between the
pilasters, is 21 feet reduced to 19 feet at the first and to 18 feet at
the second floor. The north wall is 17 feet, the south 19 feet, and the
east 18 feet. The cross wall, which runs north and south, and divides
the building nearly equally, is 11 feet at the base, and reduced to 7
feet and 6 feet at the top story.